Camelot Unchained: Piercing the Veil™ #3

Greetings and Salutations! I am pleased to present our third Piercing the Veil™!

Sornin asked: Many MMORPGs let guilds create heraldry and apply it to tabards and cloaks. Is there a chance of expanding this to other equipment, like shields?

Quite possibly so. We love the idea of realm and guild pride as well as unique character customization. So there is a chance you will see guild emblems on more than just cloaks. As Mark has said many times, the key is the effect on performance. It may seem trivial, yet when you are looking to have large-scale battles, every little bit helps.

Sornin also asked: What do you envision the first round of internal testing to look like?

Think Smackhammer with a 60,000 mile tune-up. Runs smoother, but you couldn’t say quite why. Plenty of non-visually glamorous improvements. We warned folks, IT is necessary, but perhaps not all that exciting. The main goal of our initial IT is to see how the new server performs with a lot of living, breathing players beating on each other with sticks.

Doulos asked: Are their any thoughts on an in game cash shop? And what kinds of things you might sell there such as pets?

Absolutely, Mark has a lot of thoughts on in-game cash shops within a subscription game (even if the price is below average). Unfortunately, none of them are suitable for printing here. I shall summarize for you though, “BLEEP, and BLEEPING, BLEEEEEPITY BLEEEP!”

Phyl asked: any chance for a time lapse of your VERY talented artist’s creations? I love watching these things.

So do we! When I was a kid I sat glued to the TV watching Bob Ross paint for hours There is more chance of this for post-launch artwork. Now that we are funded, well, we have a game to make! The artists are most often hard at work on things that aren’t yet revealed. This is not to say it won’t happen. We know how much you guys love it. As I mentioned in the previous PtV, we may livestream for our PayPal relaunch, so perhaps we can work some in then.

Dazed asked: Will there be blood spatter during combat?

Not bloody likely. Sorry, sorry, couldn’t resist. It’s not that we are particularly for or against it, but we are hyper focused on performance here. While things like spell effects are needed, blood spatter is not and therefore would be an unnecessary load on servers. However it’s possible that there may be a call for a bleed animation in response to a certain attack/spell. There’s also the issue with blood/gore in some EU countries so we want to be careful here.

Centrile asked: Will crafters have any defensive/offensive abilities to allow them to run away like big girls rather than being a free kill?

There are no ‘free’ lunches, and there shall be no ‘free’ kills! Crafters will have some escape and/or defense mechanisms. We want our crafters to be busy, and part of that means having them in the field at times. By the way, boys run too, I’ve made them do so more than once, in game of course…

Fanglo asked: Will /dance and other silly emotes make it into the game?

So although MJ is weary of /dance himself (can we blame the fella?), it’s likely we will have a variety of emotes to allow characters to express themselves.

Leiferon asked: I love making gear templates for different classes. It’s fun when there are many important stats (including resists). Unique items and drops ensure that very few people ever have the same exact gear on. How will Camelot Unchained encourage unique template builds?

Since there won’t be gear drops in our game, all the gear must come from our crafters. They will have the ability to make really powerful, diverse and unique items. Those looking for a WoW (or even DAoC) style system where item bonuses are the key to success (and for the popularity of certain items) will find that this won’t be the case. Gear from our crafters will be useful, though not crucial, in helping the wearer. Mark has spoken about avoiding some of the typical MMO tropes when it comes to gear. He points out that gear is generally used by designers as a carrot to keep players playing (and paying). We won’t rely on such things in Camelot Unchained.

Saicon asked: Any plans for CSE to attend any game exhibitions like Gamescom or PAX? If not next year maybe 2015?

Sure thing! Although, that is not in the budget at present. We need to focus on making a great game and then we can consider hosting an exhibition at a convention closer to launch.

Oakblade asked: Will you put stuff in the game that has minority support in the forms if you feel there is a good reason?

Only a small minority of our Founders are, as expected, regular participants on the forums. So the question becomes whether we would put something in the game if there were internal support for it, even if some or most of the people on the forums state that they are against it. The answer is yes. Our job is to make a great game. Even if some of our Founders don’t agree with the decision, we’ll implement something if we believe it is in the best interest of the game.

Tumtumm asked: How are your overall goals progressing and do you think that internal testing will still be around same time estimated before?

Our goals are progressing well and we do hope to keep our January 2014 schedule for internal testing.

Tarsir asked: Can you comment at all on bringing active posters into Internal Testing as was mentioned in the Kickstarter campaign? How many additional people will you bring in? Will they come in the first wave, or subsequent waves? etc.

While we can’t say if this will happen for the first wave of internal testing, it will happen. As to how many, that will depend on need. Certain things we test will require a mass of willing bodies, so when we get to that stage we will be looking to our active posters for their support.

Hellraise asked: Have you ever tasted Phooka meat? Or horse meat as the nearest comparable thing?

Umm, clearly you’ve never tried to catch a Phouka! All you end up ‘catching’ are flailing hooves in your teeth. We won’t eat horse meat, for personal reasons. My personal reason is that their noses are sooo soft.

Jagp asked: Can we expect any new members to CSE in the near future?

Yup! We are working on it. We are interviewing some promising programming candidates at the moment. We still need to add a lot of new talent to our merry band, so if you know any programmers who want a shot at working on a very cool project and don’t mind being underpaid for their efforts (at least until the game ships), let them know about us!

Thanks again for all the great questions peeps!

Until next time,
Renée Machyousky, Community Manager, City State Entertainment